June 5, 2010 - A new report, commissioned by the deputy health minister, shows that 22.8% of Israel’s adult population currently smokes, compared to 24.2% last year. The study also found that 31.3% of men smoke, while 14.8% of women do.

More specific to Jews, the report also found that 27.9% of Jewish men smoke, while 16.6% of Jewish women smoke. Last year, the percentage of Jewish women who smoked was higher, at 18.7%.

"Only constant monitoring of these trends can tell us whether this drop continues," said Professor Tami Shochat, the head of the Health Ministry's Center for Disease Control, the institution that wrote the report. The findings have been derived from a two-year poll conducted by the Center for Disease Control among 4,186 participants.

Regarding the Arab population, 48.8% of men smoke, while only 5.2% of women do. These numbers are similar to figures found in previous years. The percentage of what the report considers heavy smokers is highest among Arab male smokers, where 31.8% consume more than 20 cigarettes per day. Among Jews, 12.8% of male smokers and 10.9% of women smokers smoke at least one pack a day.The study also cites two polls of 20,000 youths. The report found 5% of Jewish eighth-graders smoke occasionally, and 1.6% smoke every day. Among Arabs, 2.9% of eighth graders reported smoking occasionally, while 1.1% admitted to smoking every day.

June 5, 2010 - The results of the latest national Youth Smoking Survey (YSS) indicate that youth are not seeing cigarillos as harmful as cigarettes, supporting the need for impending Bill C-32. (The Youth Smoking Survey (YSS) is Canada’s only national survey of student smoking. Funded by Health Canada, it was created to study the factors that increase and diminish the likelihood of tobacco use among youth. The results of the survey support the development and evaluation of polices and programs aimed at reducing smoking and, ultimately, saving lives.)

Passed in October 2009, Bill C-32 contained an immediate ban on tobacco advertising in newspapers and magazines. A ban on flavoured cigarettes, little cigars and blunt wraps at the manufacturer/import level followed on April 6, 2010, and by July 5, 2010 these flavoured tobacco products will be banned at the retail level.

2008-09 version of the survey, released in conjunction with World No Tobacco Day, found that 9 percent - 247,504 youth - in Grades 6 to 12 smoked cigarillos or little cigars in the last month. Yet new data indicate that 85 percent of youth who smoked just cigarillos or little cigars considered themselves "non-smokers," versus 33 percent of who smoked just cigarettes.

"Tobacco is tobacco - it's addictive and has health risks that appear no matter what form it comes in," said Steve Manske, senior scientist at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact at the University of Waterloo, who conducted the survey. Manske admits he's concerned about the large group of youth who are slipping through the cracks because they don't consider themselves at risk.

"If a kid doesn't perceive himself to be a smoker because he is 'only' smoking cigarillos, a prevention program will not be effective. Similarly, efforts to help kids quit smoking won't reach the cigarillo smokers, because they don't consider themselves smokers," Manske said. He also warns about modelling behaviour, where youth who haven't yet tried this form of tobacco may be more inclined to because their friends perceive it as less harmful.

Currently, nearly all cigarillos are flavoured, many of which appeal to youth, such as strawberry, mint, vanilla, chocolate and cherry. Their packaging may seem harmless, mimicking those of candy wrappers and prior to April 6, 2010, they could be sold individually, making them more affordable.The latest YSS reports that 33 percent of cigarillo or little cigar smokers bought them from retail sources, which will change after the legislation comes into effect on July 5, 2010. Still, 37 percent of youth bought them from social sources and 30 percent did not buy cigarillos or little cigars. This last group may account for sharing among other youth.

Manske also believes that the new legislation will not entirely eliminate the problem, as companies that market cigarillos may redesign their products to get around the "little cigar" definition in Bill C-32.

"We're making inroads by accelerating the generation and use of relevant and timely evidence to inform decision makers to improve the health of Canadian youth, but there is still a long road ahead," said Manske. "As a starting point, our efforts to prevent youth from smoking, and encourage those who are to quit, must be expanded beyond a traditional focus on cigarettes in order to help kids stay tobacco-free."

June 5, 2010 Health Canada and drug maker Pfizer Canada have issued stronger warnings about the smoking cessation medication Champix (sold in the U.S. under the name Chantix) concerned over mounting reports of mood changes, hostility, suicidal behaviour and serious, sometimes fatal, skin reactions.

Champix, the brand name of varenicline tartrate sold by Pfizer Canada Inc., must now carry a boxed warning, which is reserved for drugs that have been linked to serious safety issues or adverse events. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required a similar safety warning on the product since last July 2009.

Health officials say Champix, sold in the U.S. under the name Chantix, has been linked to serious neuropsychiatric symptoms in numerous patients, including depressed mood, agitation, aggression, hostility, thoughts of self-harm or suicide. In the warning issued Thursday, Health Canada and Pfizer also highlighted reports of dizziness, loss of consciousness, seizures and other serious side effects linked to the drug. Problems were experienced by patients with or without a history of psychiatric disorders. Alcohol intake could increase the risk to patients, Health Canada said.

Some patients using Champix have also experienced serious skin reactions, including angioedema, characterized by swelling under the skin that can be fatal, and other severe skin reactions, the warning said.Champix won Health Canada approval in April 2007. In June 2008, the Health Canada issued a public advisory warning consumers about the fact a number of patients on Champix experienced behaviour changes, hostility and thoughts of self-harm. A reminder of that warning was sent to the public in January 2009 and the department also announced plans to place a stricter warning on Champix.

Vanio Tanov..The company was defending its position at an emergency press conference following statements made by the Director of the country’s Customs Agency, Vanio Tanov, who, in an interview for the daily newspaper, Standart, said Bulgartabac was trying to privatize for “next to nothing”.

said the worst thing a high-ranking state employee could do was to insinuate that the company was near bankruptcy at a time when consultants were trying to seal a privatization deal. And he suggested that similar negative comments in the past had resulted in Bulgartabac’s failure to find a buyer during 15 years of trying.

Ivan Bilarev..Meanwhile, CEO, Ivan Bilarev, said Bulgartabac Holding was not threatened by insolvency, and, to the contrary, its position was constantly improving. Bilarev said Bulgartabac planned to invest BGN33 million (22.2 USD) this year in new production lines, and was currently working three shifts at its cigarette factories and still failing to satisfy demand.

In April, the legal cigarette market is estimated at 860 tons, while one year earlier it has been 1 400 tons. “Bulgartabac” holds 36% of the market now compared to over 50% around the same time last year, according to company's data. Nevertheless, the company’s own data indicate that it now accounts for about 36 percent of the Bulgarian market, down from around 50 percent a year ago.

“If the cabinet cuts contraband at least half, we can sell up to an additional 150 000 tons of cigarettes a month,” the [Bulgartabac] Holding's management says.

June 4, 2010 - On Thursday, June 3rd the Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI) said an order requiring tobacco companies to print graphic health warnings on cigarette packs is contrary to law. Complying with the health department’s administrative order 2010-13 will be a violation of Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act (TRA) of 2003, the group said in a statement. The law prohibits the printing of any other health warning on cigarette packs other than those specified by law, the group said.Annex to Administrative Order..

The PTI is a group of local cigarette manufacturers which include the Philippines’ biggest tobacco firm, Lucio Tan’s Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corporation, and other corporations like the Anglo-American Tobacco Corporation, La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Manufacturing Inc., and Mighty Tobacco Corporation. (Philippines - PMI - FTC merger may lead smokers continuing to smoke and lure children into a life of nicotine addiction..)“If AO 2010-13 is implemented, cigarette manufacturers, exporters, and importers will be violating the TRA, which has penal provisions that could land them in jail and be meted heavy fines," said the group, which includes Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp., the Philippines’ largest cigarette firm. As a result, the PTI called on Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral to withdraw the said order, saying it is “defective" and “deplorable."

However, Cabral remained firm about implementing the administrative order this month, saying tobacco companies can easily alter product packaging since they provide similar packages to other countries. “These tobacco manufacturers are the ones who print and export packages with graphic warnings to other Asian countries. They can very well comply with the order," she said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV.

The health department has given tobacco companies enough time to change their current packages and even invited them to a dialogue before the order was released, she said. “We invited them, but nobody came except for one person," she said. The health secretary also said her administrative order does not violate any law, since RA 9211 only covers textual warnings.

The Philippines is one of the 168 signatories of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which requires parties to the convention to “implement large, rotating health warnings on all tobacco product packaging and labelling.”

The amendments to the Health Act, which introduce more liberal rules for smoking in public spaces, have been promulgated [to put (a law) into action or force] in the Friday's edition of the State Gazette.

The actual introduction of the eased smoking regime however will be only after three months, during which the Council of Ministers must issue their own order specifying the rules for smoking in public spaces.

Under amendments that Bulgaria's parliament adopted last month smoking will be allowed in separate smoking spaces inside restaurants, bars, coffee shops, railroad stations, airports, ports, and bus stations. The owners of restaurants, clubs and coffee shops with an area less than 50 square meters, should decide if smoking would be allowed. Other notable changes include permitting employees to smoke during working hours, provided it is in a place set up for that purpose. In effect, the provisions extend the existing status quo, which was due to change with the introduction of the ban on smoking in public places.The draft legislation surprisingly managed to fuse the ruling center-right GERB with the main opposition Socialist Party. The ad hoc coalition claimed that the proposed relaxation of a ban on smoking in all public places would avoid hurting the tourist industry during tough economic times. The reason for the ban's qualification, according to reports, was that many proprietors, hoteliers, restaurant and bar owners had claimed that the full ban would have hit business, worsening the impact of the economic crisis.

Similar measures were imposed as part of a partial smoking ban in 2005 but have been widely ignored.

On May 31, Bulgaria's ruling party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) said it would push for further measures against smoking, measures which would target advertising of cigarettes and other tobacco products. According to the head of the parliamentary health care committee, Luchezar Ivanov, a list of locations would be prepared where cigarettes may be advertised in the future. Currently in Bulgaria, it is forbidden to advertise cigarettes, but it is permitted to advertise the brand of the product, according to Doctor Masha Gavrailova, head of the public health care department within the Health Ministry. Cigarette advertising is also banned on television and radio. But these new restrictions still marked a serious step down from the full smoking ban some expected to see in place from the beginning of June.

Click to enlarge images.. June 4, 2010 - Philippines - Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will officially be the 15th President of the Republic of the Philippines by June 30, 2010.

President Aquino is a smoker. World Health Organization-affiliated Tobacco-Free Initiative (T-FI), which stressed that every smoker's "right to privacy in dealing with quitting [the habit] needs to be respected." "This is as true of Noynoy Aquino as it is of everyone else," T-FI said in a statement. T-FI noted that the senator was "a smoker like 17 million other Filipinos." "Like others who were born in the 1960s, he grew up in an environment where smoking was the norm – even among role models like priests, doctors, businessmen, scientists, scholars, actors, and athletes," the organization said.

Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral has urged Aquino to quit smoking, saying it will be an "excellent demonstration of leadership by example." Cabral also urged Aquino to make good on his pre-election promise to kick his nicotine habit.

Whether he quits or not the new president should move to raise taxes on cigarettes, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said. Raising taxes on tobacco would discourage children from taking up the habit, said Dr. Soe Nyunt-u, the Philippine representative of the World Health Organization (WHO). The important thing is not for adult smokers but for the children not to pick up cigarette smoking," he said in an interview.

He added that the Philippines is one of the countries with very low excise tax rates on tobacco. "If the government can increase tobacco taxation, the resources they will generate will be sufficient to invest in achieving the Medium-term Development Goal targets," Soe said. The WHO is studying a proposal that, if approved, would impose a "simplified tax system" for the Philippines.

The plan would charge a P5 (0.11 USD) tax on every package of cigarettes sold in the country. Moreover, the tax would increase by P5 every year, he said. Taxes charged on low-end cigarette brands reach P2.47 (0.05 USD) per pack while some P27.16 (0.59 USD) are imposed on high-end brands.The WHO is also pushing for the graphic or picture-based warning signs on cigarette packs. (Philippines - Department of Health wants health warnings on cigarette packs within 90 days..) It also plans to disallow the sale of cigarettes per stick to further encourage smokers to quit.

June 4, 2010 - New York City anti-smoking signs depicting a decaying tooth, diseased lungs and a damaged brain violate cigarette vendors' free speech and should be removed, tobacco companies and retailers said in a lawsuit. Philip Morris USA, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., plus two major retail trade groups and two convenience stores, alleged in the Manhattan federal court lawsuit that the signs violate the sellers' rights by imposing the signs on them.

June 25, 2009 - New Yorkers are being called upon to give their opinion in a public hearing on July 30 on a new Health Code amendment that would put graphic anti-smoking warnings wherever tobacco products are sold. The warnings would include images depicting the adverse health effects of smoking and information on how to quit. (New York City - to ask public opinion - smoking graphic warning signs..)

March 1, 2010 - NY City health officials are requiring stores that sell tobacco products to display graphic anti-smoking signs by March 1, 2010 but some experts and other New Yorkers question the effectiveness of the ad campaigns. Starting March 1, any city shops that sell cigarettes and other tobacco products that do not display these arresting anti-smoking signs risk fines of up to $2,000. (New York City - VIDEO: starting March 1, 2010 stores, anti-smoking signs..)

"The government may not force private parties to carry messages beyond purely uncontroversial factual statements that are designed to prevent consumer deception," said the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, June 2nd and made available to reporters on Thursday, June 3rd. The three different signs, developed by the city's Health Department and required as of last December, graphically depict the harmful effects smoking can have on the body. They bear messages such as "smoking causes tooth decay" and list the number of a city helpline for assistance on how to quit.

"The signs ... do not describe the risks of smoking in purely factual terms. Instead, the signs force tobacco manufacturers and retailers to communicate vivid images at the point of sale," the suit said."We are confident that the health code provisions being challenged will withstand legal scrutiny," said New York City Law Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Thomas. By trying to suppress this educational campaign, the tobacco industry is signaling its desire to keep kids in the dark," a statement by the city's Health Department said.

The lawsuit also alleged federal anti-smoking rules prevent local governments from interfering with cigarette advertising.

June 3, 2010 - Starting Monday, June 7th Starbucks customers are welcome to sit outside and sip a while — as long as they don't light up. The international coffee giant is extending its ban on indoor smoking to outdoor patios and dining areas in California.

The change was prompted by an increasing number of communities that have enacted smoking prohibitions in outdoor dining areas. Mid-Valley smokers say they are disappointed by the rule but understand its purpose.

Brian Roberts, 33, was enjoying a cigarette with his venti coffee Wednesday, June 2nd while reading a paperback at the Marysville Starbucks. He's not thrilled with the new rule, but said it was to be expected. "It's nothing new in California," the Marysville resident said. "You go down to the East Bay and Pleasanton and you can't smoke anywhere outside." But the rule might spur a slight decline in business, he said.Live Oak resident Courtney Williams works at the Togo's next door to the Starbucks on Colusa Avenue. She spends all her breaks at one of the tables outside the coffeeshop, stealing a quick smoke or two before she goes back to work. Even though it means she'll need to find a new smoking spot, she doesn't mind the new rule, she said. "I think businesses or any place anyone owns has the right to say no smoking," she said. "I don't believe I have the right to smoke anywhere."

With Mother Nature hinting this week at the summer weather to come, Yuba City residents Bill and Roberta Fox are looking forward to afternoons on Starbucks patios with good books and icy drinks. They were relieved to learn the cigarette smoke that had marred previous experiences should no longer be a problem. "A lot of times we have to get up and go home because she has asthma," Bill Fox said of his wife. "And I know people have their rights, but my mother died of second-hand smoke."

June 3, 2010 - Altria Group Inc., the largest U.S. tobacco company, has announced to its trade customers a list price increase of 10 cents per tin on each of its smokeless brands including the recently launched Copenhagen Long-Cut Wintergreen, according to a note to investors by UBS Investment Research analyst Nik Modi.

The list price on Copenhagen Long-Cut Wintergreen goes from $1.45 to $1.55 (a 6% increase), and the base Copenhagen and Skoal list prices go from $2.39 to $2.49 (4% increases). Husky list prices remained the same at $1.55, he said.

"We believe that share gains in MST [moist smokeless tobacco] remain Altria's priority, as the company has stated on numerous occasions that they are targeting MST growth in-line with the overall category (6% to 7%). Altria's decision to take price—even on their primary share vehicle in Cope WG—could be a sign that overall MST trends have been better than expected," wrote Modi.

Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), on the very next day Altria announced increases (5/24) is raising prices on moist smokeless tobacco (MST) brands including Kodiak and Grizzly, according to a Dow Jones report. A spokesperson for Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American said the company's smokeless tobacco business is increasing prices to wholesalers by 10 cents a can for most of its brands.The average retail price for a can of Kodiak is $4.43, and $2.77 for Grizzly, the report added. The company does not predict how retail prices will be affected as it sets only the list prices to wholesalers.

"With Reynolds' increase following Altria's, we see the MST pricing environment improving," said Nik Modi of New York City-based UBS Investment Research in a separate note to investors. An earlier note anticipated Reynolds American's increase.

Swedish Match has announced to its trade customers a list price increase of 10 cents per tin on its Red Man and Timber Wolf brands of moist smokeless tobacco (MST), according to a note to investors by Nik Modi, an analyst with UBS Investment Research, New York. "The company did not move on Long Horn, its subprice value offering," Modi wrote.

The price hike follows similar moves by Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc. and Richmond, Va.-based Altgria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA on some of their MST (as well as cigarette) brands.

Swedish Match has a broad assortment brands in smokefree tobacco, cigars and pipe tobacco, matches and lighters. Some of its brands include General, Red Man, Timber Wolf and Longhorn. Swedish Match U.S. Sales is headquartered in Richmond, Va.

The pictorial warnings were proposed in July 2006 under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003. The new warnings have been pretested for their effectiveness by the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) and the Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health. (Tobacco warnings go explicit, Savita Verma, New Delhi, India Today, 3/11/2010.)

June 3, 2010 - The announcement on World No-Tobacco Day, May 31st that pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs will be enforced from June 1, 2010 is a milestone in the campaign against the hazardous smoking habit. The measure had been in the pipeline since Pakistan signed the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2004 which binds states to ban tobacco promotion and advertising. But for pictorial warnings to be effective, there should be an accompanying ban on the sale of individual cigarettes. However, statistics indicate that we have a long way to go before we can kick the habit and become a tobacco-free state.

Background: The country’s healthcare authorities have once again failed to implement the decision regarding enforcing pictorial warnings on cigarette packs from February 1, 2010. Initially, January 1, 2010 had been set as the deadline to implement the decision, which was later extended to February 1, 2010.

The decision to print a pictorial health warning was announced by the Health Ministry on May 31, 2009.The Network, a leading anti-smoking civil society organisation, criticised the government’s failure to enforce the ministry’s decision, which has again extended the implementation until the end of May, 2010. It said the government had been constantly violating its own decisions to implement the pictorial warnings, suspecting the government was secretly safeguarding the interests of the tobacco industry. The Network Executive Director Dr Arif Azad said almost 273 people die of tobacco-related diseases in Pakistan every day.

We have an estimated 25 million smokers, with at least one smoker in 55 per cent of our households. Despite a 2002 Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance, the sale and distribution of cigarettes near educational institutions continue unabated. Posters advertising cigarette-smoking continue to be put up on walls, shops and stores, and smoking scenes are still seen in our television dramas, movies and videos. On the other hand, the mandatory no-smoking signs are nowhere to be seen in many hotels, restaurants and other public places.

There is an immediate need to curb the tobacco habit as evident in the following grim statistics cited at a recent seminar: every year 100,000 people die of tobacco-related causes in Pakistan. Each day over 5,000 smokers are hospitalised. Out of 100 teenage smokers in Pakistan today, 50 will eventually die of tobacco-related diseases. While more effort is needed to enforce existing rules to eliminate smoking, other deterrent measures must also be considered. These include increasing the price of cigarettes and that of other tobacco products such as sheesha (hookah argileh nargile, hubble-bubble, water pipe, hooka, shisha, goza, meassel) and gutka. Measures deterring the use of the latter products are needed to prevent people from turning to cheap, readily available, alternative tobacco products.

June 3, 2010 - Over 40% of all US smokers have comorbid alcohol, drug, or mental disorders. A new study suggests that increasing cigarette taxes could be an effective way to reduce smoking among individuals with alcohol, drug or mental disorders.

The study found that a 10 percent increase in cigarette pricing resulted in an 18.2 percent decline in smoking among people in these groups. The findings demonstrate that increasing cigarette taxes could be a way to curb smoking, which is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Michael Ong, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the Geffen School of Medicine.

Though the researchers found that people with alcohol dependence did not cut down on cigarettes when prices rose, people with binge-drinking problems, substance-use disorders and mental disorders were significantly more likely to quit smoking if prices rose, as would occur with a cigarette tax increase.

National data show that every 10% increase in cigarette excise tax reduces cigarette consumption among the general population by 4% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guide to Community Preventive Services - Tobacco). Evidence suggests that youth are up to three times more sensitive to price than adults and that because 90% of smokers start as teens, higher taxes can sharply reduce smoking rates in the long run (Chaloupka, F. J. (2001, November). Tobacco Taxation. Presentation conducted at the National Conference of State Legislatures 5th National Health Policy Conference, Seattle, WA.).

A joint study from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research matched price hikes with teen smoking rates over six years. They found that a 10% price increase would decrease the number of children who started to smoke between 3% and 10%, depending on their stage of smoking, such as experimentation, beginning daily smoking, or relatively heavy daily smoking. (How to Fight Teen Smoking, American Cancer Society (ACS))

Prior research on the effect of cigarette pricing on smoking, which had been conducted using information from 1991, suggested that individuals with mental illness were less likely than other individuals to quit due to price increases. Unlike that research, however, the current study expanded the research to include people with alcohol and drug disorders.

The researchers based their work on data from 7,530 individuals from the 2000–01 Healthcare for Communities Household Survey. Of those, 2,106 people, or 23 percent, had alcohol, drug or mental disorders during the previous year. Of that group, 43.8 percent were smokers — a much higher proportion than among rest of the population.

While the study does suggest that increasing cigarette prices through taxation could reduce smoking among individuals with alcohol, drug or mental disorders, the authors note that further study is needed to determine if recent cigarette price increases have reduced smoking among individuals with such disorders, and whether the identified association is causal.

June 2, 2010 - Ireland is in danger of slipping back to pre-smoking ban levels because of the Government’s failure to implement a comprehensive anti-smoking strategy, warns the Irish Heart Foundation (IHF).The Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to institute an outright ban on smoking in workplaces on 29 March 2004. (Ireland, Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights)

"The number of smokers in Ireland is frightening at 29% and each one faces a double risk of stroke and a triple risk of heart attack," said IHF chief executive Michael O’Shea. "Where once we led the way on this serious health issue, we are now in danger of reverting to pre-smoking ban levels in our population because of the Government’s failure to implement an anti-smoking strategy," he declared yesterday – World No Tobacco Day.

The IHF is particularly worried about the 56% of young women smokers aged between 18 and 29 in the lower-income groups.

While there was a decline in smoking prevalence after the Smoke Free at Work legislation in March 2004, the decline has reversed, especially among young people. TheSurvey of lifestyle, attitudes and nutrition (SLAN) in Ireland survey 2007 published last October 2009, showed the rate of smoking here decreased from 33% in 1998 to 27% in 2002 and then began to rise in 2007 to 29%.

Mr O’Shea said the good news was that seven out of 10 smokers wanted to stop.

The IHF wants the Government to help smokers to quit using significant increases in tobacco tax,anti-smuggling measures and smoking cessation programmes.On 1 July 2009, Ireland banned in-store tobacco advertising and displays of tobacco products at retail outlets and new controls on tobacco vending machines (limiting them to being token-operated in registered bars and clubs only) were also introduced. At the same time a ban on the sale of packets of 10 cigarettes was introduced. Tobacco advertising had already been banned from radio, television and on billboards beforehand. (Ireland - people responding well to the ban on cigarette displays..)

The incidence of smokers among the unemployed, at 49%, is nearly double that of the general population. In the workforce, craft and trade workers showed the highest incidence of smoking, with 45% of female and 39% of male workers smoking.It also revealed that the lowest levels of smoking were reported by professional workers, with 20% of men and 18% of women smoking. (Almost half of unemployed people smoke, 4/15/2009.)

June 2, 2010 - People who smoke are also prime candidates for carrying the potentially deadly meningococcus bacteria in the back of their throats, says Professor Robert Booy (who is director of research at the National Centre for Immunisation and Research at Sydney's The Children's Hospital at Westmead).

The bug can be passed to children through "normal family cuddles and kisses", he says, and one in 10 children who go on to develop the rare meningococcal disease will die from it.

Prof Booy: "Passive smoking isn't the only smoking risk to children."

"Smokers carry more germs like meningococcus, so normal family cuddles and kisses can pass on dangerous germs, even if smokers only smoke outside."Prof Booy pointed to recent University of Sydney research, which showed almost 92 percent of New South Wales (NSW) residents aged over 16 report they live in a house that is smoke-free. He said this showed how many parents who smoked went outside to indulge their habit and this would reduce a child's risk of passive smoking-related middle ear infection and asthma, or even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

But smoking outside did not reduce the increased threat posed by meningococcus, Prof Booy said, adding that cases of its resulting disease usually spiked during winter."This is another good reason for smokers to quit, not just smoke outside," he said."Although its rare, meningococcal disease can be serious and up to 10 percent of patients can die.

"With the beginning of winter now here, we are now entering the peak season for meningococcal disease."

The symptoms of meningococcal disease may include a sudden onset of fever, severe headache, weakness, drowsiness, confusion or coma, sore legs or sore joints, nausea and vomiting, a dislike of bright lights, a stiff neck and a rash of red-purple spots.

Prof Booy said with early detection and treatment, the majority of children with meningococcal disease would make a full recovery.

The change, however, would not be introduced on June 2 either since it has not yet been published in the State Gazette as required.

It remains unclear when the liberal smoking regime would be in place because there isn’t yet a Presidential decree to publish the changes. The only way to adhere to the June 2 deadline is for President Georgi Parvanov to sign the bill Tuesday, June 2nd and its publication in a separate, emergency edition of the State Gazette Wednesday.But, after the publishing, there is a 3-moth period during which the Council of Ministers must issue there own order specifying the rules for smoking in public spaces.

According to the full smoking ban, which is now in effect, smoking is prohibited Tuesday, June 1st in all indoor public spaces, including restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. The fines range between BGN 50 (31.26 USD) and 100 (62.52 USD) for those lighting a cigarette inside, and increase to BGN 100 to 300 (187.56 USD) for repeat offenders. Restaurant owners face fines of BGN 300 to 500 (312.68 USD) while business will be charged BGN 500 to 1 5000.

Bulgaria ranks second after Greece in the European Union (EU) in terms of number of regular smokers as a percentage of the population, according to a Eurobarometer survey published in March 2009. The proportion of smokers is the highest in Greece (42%), followed by Bulgaria (39%), Latvia (37%), Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (all 36%) - Survey on Tobacco Analytical report Fieldwork: December 2008Publication: March, 2009) More girls are using tobacco than boys in Bulgaria, Mexico, New Zealand and Nigeria, shows a new survey of the World Health Organization (WHO) on youth smoking in 151 countries.Reference: Full Smoking Ban Effective in Bulgaria on Children's Day, Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency), 6/1/2010.